Best 28 Virtual reality companies - Aug, 2023

What is VR development company? 

It is a company that develops a computer-generated experience which recreates artificial environment of life situation and involves user’s sensory experience including sight, touch, hearing and even smell. Usually the team consists of: VR developers, graphic designers, 3D artists, spatial sound experts and engineers. VR development companies provide such services as: VR game development, VR training simulation, VR tour production and 3D model creation.

Tools and process

To create VR experience developers commonly use cross-platform game engines as:

1.Unity 3D that gives an opportunity to create VR games, interactive experiences and simulations in 2D and 3D. Unity offers scripting API in C# and supports following graphics APIs: Direct3D, OpenGL, OpenGL ES, WebGL and APIs on the video game consoles. Unity provides such specifications for VR games as: mipmaps, texture compression, parallax and reflection mapping, dynamic shadows and full-screen effects. It supports such platforms as: iOS, Android, Windows, Linux, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, Vuforia, Oculus Rift, Daydream and many more.

2.Unreal Engine is commonly used to develop high-quality games as stealth and fighting games, MMORPGs and RPGs. Unreal Engine provides coding in C++. It consists of sound, graphics and physics engines that actually drives the game. Supports following platforms: Windows, Android, iOS, Linux, SteamOS, Magic Leap, Daydream and others.

To develop and implement client’s project, a VR development company typically makes such steps:

a) Establishing ideas and goals. Client and team of VR developers should have the clear idea of the purpose and task VR experience will perform. All the parameters should be written in technical documentation.

b) Concept creation. At this stage should be approved visual design concept and graphics architecture in 3D space.

c) Motion Prototype. The team tracks and programs all the possible user’s movements by using interaction tracking, heat maps, head and eyes tracking system.

d) VR development. 3D designers and developers construct VR experience by creating an immersive environments, programming an interactive elements and texturing the assets.

e) Beta testing. Is a detection of bugs and uncertainties by performing constant testing of graphics, movements and technical capabilities.

f) Improvement. Is a stage of fixing detected bugs.

g) Release. Presenting the final version of VR experience to the clients for them to release it to the final users.

As a rule, VR development companies charge one-time fee per whole project, while freelance VR developers charge per hour. For more details, see the paragraph below on pricing types.

Keep in mind that development process and development period can differ depending on a chosen headset where VR experience will be performed. Consequently if you prefer to develop VR experience for powerful PC using such headsets as HTC Vive or Oculus Rift it will take twice more time than to develop it for standalone headsets as Oculus Go or Lenovo Mirage Solo.

The cost of VR projects

The cost of development depends on complexity of future VR app:

1) simple VR app or elementary VR game development will cost $3,000 - $9,000. For example, 360 Virtual tour costs rates starts - from $3,500; Architectural Visualization - from $4,000; 3D Runner from $5,000.

2) VR for online stores will cost $10,000 - $30,000

3) Cinema in VR will cost $10,000 - $35,000 for UI plus approximately $10,000 for backend development

4) VR apps and games of middle complexity will cost $30,000 - $85,000

5) VR Shooter cost rates starts from $65,000 for one level and $30,000 for every next level

6) complicated VR games development, as MMORPG (Massively multiplayer online role-playing game) will cost $90,000 - $150,000 (or even more)

How to choose experts?

Here are some criteria to consider that will help you to choose appropriate Virtual Reality development company:

By VR development experience. Define the field of company’s expertise, it may be: game production, model creation, VR tour production, training simulation, product demo or event presentation.

By portfolio. Every valuable VR development company has a portfolio on its website. Through it you can find out the level of VR experience quality and the level of company’s team expertise.

By pricing. Usually VR development company provides two types of pricing: a) Fixed price. It is better option for project with strict budget and deadline. With such pricing you will definitely know the final cost of the project but you will be limited in change requests. b) Time & Material. It is better option for the project with flexible timeframes. It will be easier to make changes but harder to control the costs using this pricing method.

By compatibility. When you are hiring VR development company, you are hiring technological partner. Get to know better your future colleague. Besides level of delivered quality take to consideration company’s values, the way they communicate, flexibility to changes and the way they treat their team.

By clients’ feedbacks and ratings. It is also good to check the feedbacks from former clients and contact with them to get more information about cooperation with this particular VR development company.

Where VR can be used?

Virtual reality is widely used in plenty industries. Areas that already benefited from cooperation with Virtual Reality development companies are:

Education - VR finds its implementation in schools and colleges. According to Internet2 (University Corporation of Advanced Internet Development) report 18% of US colleges had already “fully deployed” VR in studying process and 46% deployed it partially. For example, there is a VR application called Mission:Iss which transports student into the orbit on board of the International Space Station.

Retail - VR is a great solution for online store owners who added model creation and showroom option to their official website. By watching it, buyers can discover types and shades of dress fabric, shape of shoes, size of bags. For example, fashion retailer TopShop provided its buyers with VR app where they had a chance to sit on the first row of fashion show during London Fashion Week.

Game industry - there are a huge amount of VR games such as: Beat Sabet, Echo Combat, Moos, Blade and Sorcery. One of the most impressive is Edge of Nowhere in which user become a hero makes his way to rescue a missing expedition.

Architecture - construction companies benefited from it because now they can construct a building and show it to the client in advance. There are such applications as: Fuzor, Twin Motion, Prospect, Autodesk Live. For example, Autodesk Live gives the opportunity to construct architecture model and step inside it through virtual environment.

Tourism - VR experiences allow travellers to plan their trip better and take a look on future destinations. The most amazing are: Google Earth VR, Everest VR, The Grand Canyon Experience and Destinations. For instance, in Everest VR user feels as a participant rather than a viewer because VR contains a lot of interactive mountain climbing elements.

VR tour - is a great tool if you need to show an exhibition. For example, British museum created a VR tour which transports viewers and shows them a historical exhibition of the Bronze Age.

VR event - Recreation of live event in order to share it with the wide audience and provide users with the feeling of actual presence. For instance, Virtually Live company recreated a Formula E race where user had a chance to become a professional race driver.

Professional trainings - companies are actively using VR to create training simulation app in order to teach or to train their employees some specific skills. For instance, VR Star is a VR training that teaches how to use safely automation mechanism during manufacturing process.

Medicine - VR has a great impact on this industry as it already launched such projects as: virtual robotic surgery, virtual reality diagnostics, anatomy models and realistic virtual environments. For example, EyeSim that is ophthalmic simulator where students can train and learn about ocular anatomy.